b Teachers and Tradition
This a priori logic is supported by the evidence that the passing on of tradition was part of church founding from the first. Paul was careful to refer his churches back to such foundation traditions on several occasions 17 the evidence is hardly to be explained as references solely to kerygmatic or confessional formulae. Rather, we find that it includes community tradition 1 Cor. 23 , teaching on how the new converts should live e.g., Phil. 4.9 1 Thess. 4.1 2 Thess. 3.6 , and traditions of...
Hungering for What Is Right
The high evaluation accorded to the Torah in Jewish tradition has always been one of the distinguishing marks of Judaism 9.5d and one of the fundamental points of differentiation with Christianity. The attitude of Jesus to the law of Israel has therefore been one of the key issues for questers, not least with the question in view whether subsequent Christian rejection of the law can be traced back to Jesus himself, or can at least find validation in what he taught and in the way he conducted...
b Jesus the Revolutionary
One end of the spectrum is confident that Jesus intended to lead a revolution against Rome's overlordship. Starting with Reimarus this thesis has been offered at various times during the past two hundred years.33 Particularly in the 1960s, the portrayal of Jesus as equivalent to the modern freedom fighter proved to be very influential in Liberation theology.34 But the most scholarly statement of the thesis has been that of S. G. F. Brandon. Brandon's argument is basically that the Gospels'...
c Markan Narratives
I have already given examples of where Synoptic analysis points to the firm conclusion of Matthean and Lukan dependency on Mark 7.3 . But in other cases the variation in detail is such that the straightforward hypothesis of literary dependence on Mark becomes very strained. Consider the following narratives the stilling of the storm Mark 4.35-41 Matt. 8.23-27 Luke 8.22-25 the Syro-phoenician woman Mark 7,24-30 Matt. 15.21-28 the healing of the possessed boy Mark 9.14-27 Matt. 17.14-18 Luke...
v The Widows Pence
41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched how the crowd gut money into the Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper looked up and saw rich people putting into the treasury their gifts 2 he also saw a needy widow putting in two small copper which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, Truly I this poor widow has put in more than all 3 He said, Of a truth Ltell this poor widow has put in more than all of those who...
a The Four Sects
The usual starting point has been Josephus' 'four philosophies' or 'sects' haireseis 44 not unnaturally since Josephus' way of introducing them seems to imply that these were the only groupings among the Jews worthy of attention on the part of his readers War 2.119-166 Ant. 18.11-25 . To begin with 43. The objective is limited I have no intention of attempting a full description of the groups and elements which made up Second Temple Judaism. 44. Note the various discussions on the use of terms...
a The Time Has Been Fulfilled
Mark's headline statement at the beginning of Mark's account of Jesus' mission, already quoted 12.1 , has a double emphasis. Not only does Jesus proclaim the kingdom's nearness equally thematic is the note of fulfilment. The headline is introduced by the information that the Baptist had been removed from the scene Mark 1.14a and begins with the words, 'The time has been fulfilled peplerotai 273. Characteristic of the ambiguity is Matthew's use of palingenesia 'rebirth' in his version of the...
a Who Were the Poor
Behind the Greek termptochoi135 stands a number of Hebrew terms, particularly 'aniyyim.136 The Hebrew terms denote material poverty in its various aspects and consequences. Of these consequences the most important were the social responsibilities thereby laid upon the Israelite community to relieve poverty and what today would be called 'God's option for the poor'.137 1 In the agricultural economies of the ancient Near East ownership of land was the basis of economic security. Material poverty...
c The Beginning of the Gospel
The conclusion just reached is all the more striking in view of the fact that the Baptist is remembered in all strands of the Gospel tradition as 'the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ' Mark 1.1 . Mark is most explicit 1.2-8 makes it clear that it is John who marks or even constitutes that 'beginning' just as, later, John's martyr-like death prefigures that of Jesus 6.14-29 . But the fact that Q, by general consent, begins with the preaching of John Matt. 17 carries the same...
The Influence of Prophecy
The picture which is emerging from the above survey is of church-founding apostles passing on Jesus tradition, of teachers reinforcing their church's corporate memory of Jesus tradition, and of early letter writers alluding to and evoking that Jesus tradition in their paraenesis. This picture is most seriously challenged by the common assumption that prophetic utterances in the early churches were often added to the Jesus tradition. The claim is not simply that earlier tradition was modified,...
A Third Quest
In the closing decades of the twentieth century the most hopeful advance in life of Jesus research was the recognition that the quest must primarily have in view Jesus the Jew and a clearer and firmer grasp of the consequences. What distinguishes this 'third quest of the historical Jesus'10 is the conviction that any attempt to build up 99. Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus ch, 4. 100. The title was introduced by N. T. Wright in his updating of Stephen Neill's The Interpretation of the New...
Oral Transmission
In the light of the above we can begin to sketch in the likely process of traditioning in the case of the Jesus tradition. The fact that it coheres so well with the 'in principle' sketch of 6.5 and the a priori considerations of 8.1-2 is significant. 263. Draper also argues that the thesis of some of Jesus' sayings 'created entirely de novo . . . conflicts with the processes of oral transmission. Such entirely innovative words of the Risen Jesus are inherently unlikely' Horsley and Draper,...
Oligopistos Aramaic Equivalent
According to Mark Jesus called his hearers not simply to repent convert, but also to believe Mark has put the call in the language of later mis sionaries to 'believe in the gospel'. But talk of 'faith' is no stranger to the 46. Goppelt gives particular emphasis to the call for repentance Theology chs. 3-4 'Each of Jesus' demands was after nothing less than a transformation of the person from the very core, i.e., total repentance' 118 . 47. Despite their sole attestation by Luke, it is widely...
The Political Context
In setting out the historical context we must remember, of course, that the land of Israel Palestine was under Roman rule during the period of our interest. The Romans had conquered the territory under Pompey in 63 BCE, and established their rule most effectively through the client king Herod the Great 37-4 BCE . The united kingdom was then broken up among Herod's surviving sons, with Herod Antipas being given Galilee and Perea. Judea, after a spell under the unpopular Archelaus 4 BCE-6 CE ,...
a The Kingdom Has Drawn Near
We have already indicated the headline and summary with which Mark introduces his account of Jesus' mission 'the kingdom of God has drawn near engiken ' Mark 1.15 . Matthew follows him Matt. 4.17 . We also observed that the parallel accounts of the sending out of the disciples on mission Q have them instructed by Jesus to deliver precisely the same message 'The kingdom of God heaven has drawn near' Matt. 10.7 Luke 10.9 Luke 10.11 .124 This is a notable fact and one not to be lightly discounted,...
Why Not Beginning from Bethlehem
If John's baptism of Jesus is a possible starting point, why not follow Matthew and Luke in pushing back to Jesus' birth A 'life', whether conceived as a modern or an ancient biography, should at least say what is known of the subject's origins. There are several reasons why we do not follow that option. a. Our whole procedure is based on the recognition that Jesus made an impact on those who became his disciples, an impact which is still evident in the traditions which have come down to us. We...
Info Xtn
The saying has the variations and elaborations typical of oral performance, and rounds off effectively Jesus' response to the criticism of consorting with 'sin-ners'.179 There is an unwillingness on the part of many to allow that Jesus may have expressed his sense of mission in such a form.180 But the saying is echoed in subsequent Christian literature, which suggests a lengthy history.181 And we shall see below that the righteous-sinner antithesis closely with the factionalism of Jesus'...
Misleading Presuppositions about Judaism
The description of Judaism at the time of Jesus is beset with problems of definition, not least those of anachronistic definition. If we are to gain a clear perspective on the Judaism of the time of Jesus, these problems need to be faced squarely, since otherwise the historical context within which we locate Jesus may be seriously distorted, and we may be led up a number of false trails. An older generation of scholarship, both Jewish and Christian, thought in 1. What Renan famously called 'a...
b What Do We Mean by Eschatological
A second issue raised by this inventory of Second Temple Jewish expectation is the extent to which or sense in which we can speak of this expectation as 'escha-tological'. This term has bewitched and befuddled the quest of the historical Jesus for a century. The Greek word eschaton clearly denotes 'end'. But end of what The assumption since Schweitzer has been that what was in view was 'the end of time, the end of history, the end of the world'. That would be fine, if the expectation were...
The Second Quest
Despite the huge influence of Bultmann, it was his pupils who most effectively raised again the question whether some sort of quest of the Jesus ought to be resumed. The old quest had been effectively declared both impossible and illegitimate.46 It was impossible because 'the Gospels are primary sources for the history of the early Church, and only secondarily sources for the history of Jesus' 'the twentieth century presupposes the kerygmatic nature of the Gospels, and feels really confident in...
b The Centurions Servant
Within the Gospel tradition itself, one of the most intriguing episodes is the one recorded in Matt. 8.5-13 and Luke 7.1-10 with a likely parallel in John 4.46b-54 . The first point of interest is that the pericope is usually credited to Q, despite it being a narrative and despite there being no parallel to such an episode being 192. Note the echoes of Isa. 42.6, 16 and 49.6. included within other sayings Gospels.193 But why should a pericope be attributed to the document Q simply because it...
a J G Herder
Within the history reviewed above, J. G. Herder 1744-1803 is usually given the credit for first raising the issue. Herder was unhappy with Lessing's idea that behind the Synoptic Gospels lay an original Aramaic gospel of the Nazarenes 'Neither apostolic nor church history knows of any such Primal Gospel'. What 105. W. Schmithals is a lone voice in his highly implausible view, recently repeated, that the Synoptic tradition was literary from the first 'Vom Ursprung der synoptischen Tradition',...
In Summary
This has been a lengthy chapter, so let me sum up what has emerged about the Jesus tradition prior to its being written down. First 8.1 , I noted the strong circumstantial case for the view that, from the beginning, new converts would have wanted to know about Jesus, that no church would have been established without its store of foundation including Jesus tradition, and that the churches were organised to maintain and to pass on that tradition. The importance of remembering Jesus and learning...
ReEnter the NeoLiberal Jesus
One of the most surprising facts of recent 'life of Jesus' research is that after about seventy years of silence, the old Liberal Jesus has revived or should we say, returned from exile . Despite having had the last rites pronounced over him at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Liberal Jesus has risen again, apparently hale and hearty. That this should have happened in North America makes it more understandable, since the church-state division there has encouraged a self-conscious and...